Liberty backs mother over riot threat

A mother facing eviction from her council flat after her teenage son was convicted of looting today enlisted the aid of human rights group Liberty to save her home from the bailiffs.

Daniel Sartain-Clarke, 18, yesterday admitted raiding Currys electrical store in Clapham Junction as unrest swept London in August. His guilty plea allows Wandsworth council to seek an eviction order against his mother, Maite de la Calva, 43, and her eight-year-old daughter, turfing them out of the two-bedroom flat where they have lived for five years.

But Liberty said the threat – announced in a blaze of headlines the immediate aftermath of the riots – was an act of “shameless self-promotion” by the council.